Review: Comic Drama in ‘Sister Play’ in Summit

There are some promises of intriguing interactions in “Sister Play,” a dramatic comedy at the Dreamcatcher Repertory Theater at the Oakes Center in Summit. But those promises have been largely left unfulfilled.

This contemporary play about the conflicts involving two sisters, Anna (Laura Ekstrand) and Lilly (Jessica O’Hara-Baker), was originally presented by Harbor Stage Company in Massachusetts in 2014 and then by the Magic Theater in San Francisco in 2015. Both of those productions were directed by John Kolvenbach, the playwright.

Anna and Lilly are white, cultivated, upper-middle-class women in their 30s who are sharing a few summer days at a rundown cabin on Cape Cod formerly frequented by their late father, who died a dozen or so years earlier. Accompanying them is Malcolm (Clark Carmichael), a mild-mannered novelist with whom Anna has forged a comfortable marriage.

Their mother skipped out on the family some time before their dad’s death, so Anna has served as the hawk-eyed de facto parent for Lilly, who is several years younger. The audience soon learns that the carefree Lilly is impulsive and possesses poor judgment, especially when it comes to men.

As they settle into their ramshackle abode, Malcolm appears to be content to let the highhanded Anna run their lives, even as Lilly generally balks at her authority.

Neither sister professes to be fond of this musty hideaway, but it becomes evident that here is where they annually communicate with whatever essence of their father haunts the premises. The sisters and Malcolm all freely confide their inner feelings to the cabin air.

On the evening of their arrival, Lilly ventures out on a midnight drive and returns with William (Jason Szamreta), a seemingly sweet stranger whom she picked up on the roadside. William is a soulful drifter from Texas with no prospects and $300 in his pocket.

Lilly is smitten. William is beguiled. If Malcolm is ambivalent about their liaison, Anna is appalled and insistent that this enigmatic intruder should go away immediately.

The play is staged by Nicole Callender, an actor and member of the Dreamcatcher ensemble who is making her directorial debut. Unfortunately, Ms. Callender’s inexperience as a director makes a thorough muddle of the play and its production.

“Sister Play” is a whimsical piece that not always persuasively melds playful and dramatic passages with moments of a philosophical nature as the characters inwardly express thoughts about their lives and relationships. Speaking of his bonds with Anna and Lilly, Malcolm likens himself to a pamphlet between two books written in a language he doesn’t understand.

The two-act play’s many shifts in tone need to be delicately realized by the actors and supported by the visuals around them. But Ms. Callender’s blunt interpretation of the text and the resulting performances tend to veer simply between situational comedy and melodrama.

Ms. Ekstrand, who is Dreamcatcher’s artistic director and is usually a capable actor, suffers the most from this prosaic approach to the play. Ms. Ekstrand portrays the lighter moments of Anna’s steely character in a high-pitched voice and with facial reactions that suggest she is motivated by a TV laugh track. When Anna later becomes desperate to get William out of her little sister’s way, she rears back and wields a serrated knife as if it were a javelin.

The other players are more successful in their performances. Mr. Carmichael depicts the bemused Malcolm broadly at some times and unobtrusively at others. Ms. O’Hara-Baker gives her free-spirited Lilly a sense of gamin airiness. Mr. Szamreta embodies William warmly with many affirmative nods of the head and a hand that occasionally creeps toward his heart.

The sketchy setting for the cottage by Matt Ward and the crude lighting design by Zach Pizza most likely bespeak budget constraints as much as the director’s intentions. Either way, the lack of visual atmosphere does “Sister Play” no favors.